Aaron Pollak and Kyle Clark, cofounders of the Burlington, Vermont-based startup Designbook, filed trademark applications last September for the name of their business, which seeks to provide a community for entrepreneurs to support their emerging businesses by connecting with potential investors and collaborators. They received word in March that Facebook would be filing opposition on the grounds the name would “create confusion in the industry” and imply a relationship between the two, Pollak says.

The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.